Tobias Escher at the OII

A hopefully growing list of people and institutions based in Germany (or German -speaking parts of the world) that do academic work on the Internet and its social implications. Disclaimer: this is not comprehensive and of course subjective but please feel free to add more by dropping me an email!

institutions

• Büro für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung beim Deutschen BundestagOffice of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag -
  do research for the German Parliament and tend to work on political participation online (eg. electronic petitions and online public sphere)
• Deutsches Digital Institut German Digital Institute -
  some form of think tank that for now offers only some sporadic workshops it seems
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Online-ForschungGerman Society for Online Research -
  the German association for online researchers which incorporates many market research companies and organises the “General Online Research” conference
• Fachgruppe ‘Computervermittelte Kommunikation’ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft) Special standing group on computer-mediated communication of the German Society for Media- and Communication Science -
  a network of scholars
• Forschungsgruppe Kooperationssysteme München (Universität der Bundeswehr München) Cooperation Systems Center Munich -
  ran a survey on social network site users in Germany in early 2008
• Forschungsstelle “Neue Kommunikationsmedien” (Universität Bamberg) Research Centre New Communication Media Bamber -
  do a lot on blogs
• Forschungsstelle für Medienwirtschaft und Kommunikationsforschung (Universität Hohenheim)  Research Centre for Media Economy and Communication Science -  at least one project on Web 2.0 usage
• Fraunhofer Institutes – two of the Fraunhofer institutes seem to do relevant work. The Fraunhofer Institut für Intelligente Analyse- und Informationssysteme (IAIS) Intelligent Systems for data analysis and information extraction has been doing work in eParticipation systems (see Oliver Märker below).
  The Fraunhofer Institute für System- und Innovationsforschung (ISI) Systems and Innovations Research is working on information systems and politics (see Ann Zimmermann below).
• Forschungsinstitut für Internet und Gesellschaft (Google) Research Institute for Internet and Society -
  as of February 2011 in the process of foundation, an effort by Google to set up a research institute in collaboration with other German research institutions to focus on i) innovation and online economy, ii) Internet governance and policy and iii) legal aspects of Internet and society
• Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung (Universität Hamburg) Hans-Bredow Institute for Media Research -
  some focus on law but now more widely working on the Internet, e.g. with Jan Schmidt (see people)
• Informationsdienste und elektronische Märkte (Universität Karlsruhe) Information Services and Electronic Markets -
  seem to look more on economic aspects but also have some work on social network sites
• Institut für Informationsmanagement (Universität Bremen) Institute for Information Management -
  work on eParticipation, both in evaluation as well as actual systems implementation
• Institut für Medien und Kommunikationswissenschaft (TU Ilmenau) Institute of Media and Communication Science -
  seem to do a lot on political communication online
• Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft (Universität Bonn) Institute for Communication Studies -
  do some research on online games and especially Second Life as well as political communication
• Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft (Universität Greiswald) Institute for Communication Studies -
  as part of a German research founded research group on political online communication there is a project on “Political organisations in the online world”
• Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft (Universität Münster) Institute for Communication Studies - did in early 2008 a study on the use of online social networking
• Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (FU Berlin) Institute for Media and Communication Studies - do some work on online journalism and computer-mediated communication (e.g. Beck and Quandt)
• Institut für Politikwissenschaft (Universität Münster) Institute for Political Sciences - research on the political use of the Internet by migrants, ran an interesting course in 2007 and 2008 on the political potential of the Internet
• Institut für Technik und Gesellschaft (Universität Hamburg-Harburg) Institute for Technology and Society -
  some work on eLearning, for me most notable as the former home of DEMOS, an online deliberation platform
• Internationales Institut für Sozio-InformationInternational Institute for Socio-Informatics -
  aimed at researching the use of Computer Science for social system, hence seems to have a focus on community technologies
• Institut für Wissensmedien (Leibniz Association, Tübingen) Knowledge Media Research Center -
  analyses knowledge exchange via modern communications media, media-based learning
• Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung (Cologne) Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies -
  have apparently two relevant project areas, “Science, Technology and Innovation” and “Research Group on Institution Building across Borders”
• Lehrstuhl für Journalistik II (Universität Leipzig) Journalism Studies -
  had a project on online gatekeeping via search engines and also seem to do other work on journalism in the digital era
• Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Berlin) German Institute for International and Security Affairs -
  do work on cyberterrorism
• Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (Berlin) Social Science Research Center Berlin -
  work for example on cyberprotest and social movement, in the past had also research on online mediation
• Zentrum für Internetforschung und Medienintegration (Universität München) Centre for Internet Research and Media Integration - aims to combine computer science, economics and communication science
• Zentrum für Medien und Interaktivität (Universität Giessen) Center for Media and Interactivity - works for example in eBusiness and eGovernment

projects:

• DFG Forschungsgruppe “Politische Kommunikation in der Online-Welt” (research group of the German Research Foundation: Political communication in the online world”) – several projects in Düsseldorf, Greifswald, Zurich, Jena and Augsburg

other German-speaking countries

• ICT&S Center – Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society (University of Salzburg, Austria) – an Austrian institute with a vision similar to the OII
• The Interdisciplinary Research Group at the University of Vienna – an interdisciplinary group of young researchers conducting research on internet, society and culture. Affiliated with the Graduate Centre at the Faculty of Social Sciences

people

• Steffen Albrecht – works on political participation online
• Klaus Beck – director of Institute for Media and Communication Studies, has written early on about online communication
• Christoph Bieber – research fellow at University of Gießen at the Center for Media and Interactivity, working on
• Patrick Donges – professor for Communication Science at University of Greifswald working on DFG research group on political online communication, “political organisation in the online world”
• Christiane Eilders – professor at Institute of Media und Educational-Technology at University of Augsburg, working on DFG research group on political online communication, “influence of blog usage on the reception of public opinion”
• Martin Emmer – professor, working on political mobilisation (online)
• Tina Günther – A sociologist whose research interests and publications focus on economic and organizational sociology, knowledge, communication and social media. Also maintains a list of sociology blogs.
• Jeanette Hofmann – research area is Internet governance, on leave from WZB (see above), currently at the LSE
• Wolfgang Kubicek – umfangreiche Arbeiten zum Thema online Beteiligung, Schwerpunkt in Evaluation
• Kathrin Kissau – works on migrants and the Internet (wrote her PhD on “The Role of the Internet for the Integration of Immigrants in Germany”) as well as more general political potential of the Internet, based in Münster (see above)
• Marcus Maurer – professor at Institute for Communication Studies at University of Jena, working in DFG research group on political online communication, “digital knowledge gaps”
• Christoph Neuberger – study of online social networking as well as online public sphere, was director of Communications Institute in Münster (see above), now in Munich
• Thorsten Quandt – works mainly on online journalism, currently at FU Berlin
• Jan Schmidt – special expertise in German blogosphere (being a blogger himself), formerly at FoNK in Bamberg, now in Hamburg (see institutions)
• Christian Stegbauer – has worked on Wikipedia and counter-publics online
• Wolfgang Schweiger – works on computer-mediated communication, online journalism and methods development; now at TU Ilmenau
• Gerhard Vowe – Professor at Institute for Communication Studies in Düsseldorf, mainly works on political online communication
• Ann Zimmermann – researcher at Fraunhofer Competence Center Innovation Systems and Policy. Work on online public sphere and civil society.
• Thomas Zittel – Professor for Comparative Political Science at Frankfurt University. Works on political representation (online) and in particular MPs’ electronic constituency communication in a comparative perspective.

Updated: 12 April 2011